Computing devices may have different capabilities and features based on the applications installed in their memory. Firmware and applications may be pre-installed to a computing device before purchase by a customer or installed after purchase by a customer or service technician via a storage media, such as a magnetic or optical disk. For computing devices that communicate with a computer network, applications may be installed after a customer or service technician downloads the applications to the computing device.
Installations of applications and updates on wireless communication devices present other issues that are not a concern for wired devices. Users of wireless communication devices frequently need access to a variety of information, but such information is not as readily available as wired connections due to the limited bandwidth of wireless connections. Also, the amount of data transferred to and from a wireless communication device should be minimized in order to minimize power drain on the device's power source. Thus, wireless communication systems are challenged to maximize the quality of information provided to wireless communication devices while minimizing the power restrictions imposed on the wireless device as well as the length of time it may take to upload large segments of information.
Systems and methods for repairing and upgrading software on wireless devices are known, but such systems and methods may deal with updates of monolithic firmware as well as updates of high-level and mid-level applications. Mobile devices are currently evolving toward use of full blown Operating Systems (OS), for example Linux and Windows. However, upgrade and repair is usually performed with respect to monolithic rather than componentized software. Therefore, the industry is lacking in devices and methods with support of component specific upgrade and repair capabilities.
Additionally, device management information accessible to system operators from mobile devices is limited to the mobile device's design and what was included during manufacturing, particularly with respect to monolithic software designs. Therefore, system operators cannot adjust mobile devices efficiently during the mobile device life cycle. These issues limit system operators' customer care capabilities and diagnostics.
Therefore, a need exists for an apparatus and method for enabling dynamic extension of a mobile device logical device management tree.